Breakerless ignition systems have been available for a number of years in which various solid state electronic components are used in place of mechanical breaker points. One such system, for example, is shown in Swift U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,347 wherein a gate controlled switch (GCS) is utilized to make and break the circuit of the primary winding of an ignition coil. This breakerless ignition system involves in one embodiment a silicon controlled rectifier and a plurality of separate triggering coils for controlling the "on" and "off" operation of the GCS which, at the present time, are of somewhat limited availability and thus relatively costly. Moreover, such devices are highly sensitive in operation and require quite delicate and critical control of the currents of the pulses used for turning the device "off" and "on". For example, such control currents run in the milliampere range.
The principal object of this invention is to provide a breakerless ignition system which is highly reliable in operation and relatively simple and economical to manufacture.
Another object of this invention is to provide a breakerless ignition system of the above type in which current generated in the primary winding of the ignition coil is utilized both for turning "on" and "off" a solid state electronic ignition switching device for making and breaking the primary circuit of the ignition coil, thereby eliminating the necessity of a number of separate control coils.
A further object of this invention is to provide a breakerless ignition system of the above type in which a single trigger coil is fabricated directly into the stator assembly to provide a trigger signal which results in breaking the primary circuit of the ignition coil.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a breakerless ignition system which utilizes a gate-turn-off silicon controlled rectifier and a solid state electronic switching device which makes and breaks the primary winding of the ignition coil utilizing power derived from the primary winding of the engine coil.